1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to aircraft, and more specifically to freight feeder aircraft for short-haul air transportation of containerized cargo from originating locations to a central point where the cargo may be efficiently reloaded onto large size aircraft for long-haul transportation to another central reloading point or to a final destination. The invention also relates to a method of transporting cargo using such a freight feeder aircraft.
2. Background and Prior Art
Cargo carrying aircraft are known in the art. Typically, such aircraft are for long-haul operations, are of very large size, require long runways for takeoff and landing, and are inefficient and uneconomical for short-haul operations. Loading and unloading cargo from such aircraft is particularly inefficient and requires a significant amount of time, thus undesirably increasing the "turn around" time from landing and unloading to reloading for another takeoff.
An example of a known cargo carrying aircraft is shown in Watter U.S. Pat. No. 2,425,498.
Power lifted aircraft, in the form of helicopters, have also been known for many years and used for air transportation of cargo. While such aircraft have many advantages over conventional aircraft, which typically require runways of a minimum specified length for takeoff and landing, helicopters are incapable of fulfilling the rapidly developing needs of the commercial and military air cargo transportation systems as a result of the operational and economic limitations of such aircraft.
As such, a new type of aircraft is needed to fill the needs of the short haul freight industries, such as the overnight express package delivery industry, as well as the increasingly containerized freight transportation systems of the military services. Additionally, there is a need for a special aircraft which can perform short haul freight feeder operations from origination points to major hubs of the large passenger airlines, thereby supplementing revenues of such airlines by filling the containerized cargo areas in the bellies of their large passenger aircraft. Still further, there is an increasing need for the air transportation of containerized cargo to and from remote locations not accessible by large aircraft, such as in many developing Third World countries.